About this ebook
Logic enables the representation of complex relations among entities while probability theory is useful for model uncertainty over attributes and relations. Combining the two is a very active field of study. Probabilistic Programming extends programming languages with probabilistic primitives that can be used to write complex probabilistic models. Algorithms for the inference and learning tasks are then provided automatically by the system.
Probabilistic Logic programming is at the same time a logic language, with its knowledge representation capabilities, and a Turing complete language, with its computation capabilities, thus providing the best of both worlds.
Since its birth, the field of Probabilistic Logic Programming has seen a steady increase of activity, with many proposals for languages and algorithms for inference and learning. Foundations of Probabilistic Logic Programming aims at providing an overview of the field with a special emphasis on languages under the Distribution Semantics, one of the most influential approaches. The book presents the main ideas for semantics, inference, and learning and highlights connections between the methods.
Many examples of the book include a link to a page of the web application http://cplint.eu where the code can be run online.
About the author
Fabrizio Riguzzi is Associate Professor of Computer Science at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Ferrara. He was previously Assistant Professor at the same university. He got his Master and PhD in Computer Engineering from the University of Bologna. Fabrizio Riguzzi is vice-president of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence and Editor in Chief of Intelligenza Artificiale, the official journal of the Association. He is the author of more than 150 peer reviewed papers in the areas of Machine Learning, Inductive Logic Programming and Statistical Relational Learning. His aim is to develop intelligent systems by combining in novel ways techniques from artificial intelligence, logic and statistics.
